Heart shaped scones for Valentine's Day

Here’s the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, so help me Biscuit God. In my early days of baking the phrase “cut in the butter” in a recipe sent me running for the hills. I’m not exactly sure why, but I perceived cutting butter into flour as some Herculean task that only 5 star bakers were qualified to do.

Well, guess what, nothing could be further from the truth. Really it is quite a simple procedure to cut fats into flour and I strongly recommend trying your hand at biscuit or scone making, it is a very welcomed and rewarding thing to do.

Anyway, back to my story. Because I was afraid to pick up any scone recipe that required cutting something into something I looked around and found this fabulous recipe for Dried Fruit Cream Scones in Marion Cunningham’s cookbook The Breakfast Book, .

I made a couple of changes to suit our purposes at my restaurant The White Bear Cafe, which was  located in Berkeley, California, where thousands of fluted edge mini scones were made, but the original recipe is simply divine.

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 tablespoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 cup sugar

1/2 cup chopped dried fruit (apricots, figs, papaya etc.)

1/4 cup golden raisins

1 1/4 cup heavy cream

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Combine all dry ingredients in a mixing bowl and whisk to distribute. Add the cream and with a fork stir together until the dough holds together in a rough mass. Turn dough out onto a lightly floured work surface and knead 8-9 times. Pat into a circle and cut into 12 pie shaped wedges. Place on a sheet pan allowing an inch or so between scones and bake for about 15 minutes, or until golden brown. Marion doesn’t, but I brush the tops with melted butter.

There is something miraculously transformational about biscuit/scone making, and perhaps bread in general. You start with a mixing bowl of very raw looking ingredients, flour, sugar, baking power and soda or yeast and a few minutes or a couple of hours later you’re taking glorious bread or biscuits from the oven.

Warm from the oven and slathered with butter and jam these cream scones have an elegant  simplicity. Paired with fresh fruit and scrambled eggs…can it get any better?

Remember, when YOU make it, the first ingredient is love.

Buon Apetito!

Yes, they are that gorgeous.

My best friend Greg gave me Shirley Corriher’s book, Cookwise for a gift about 10 or 11 years ago. I read it like a novel, and I’m here to tell you it is a real page turner.

If you’re a cooking aficionado please do yourself a huge favor and buy this book. Half cookbook and half kitchen science primer, if you’re the type of person who likes to know why things happen the way they do in the kitchen, then you will love, no, adore this cookbook.

Short story, follow me for a moment. I recently was given James Villas’ book Biscuit Bliss, a 140 page treatise on the art of biscuit making. In his book he  gives Shirley’s recipe for “Touch of Grace” biscuits, so named because her grandmother told her as a child that her biscuits didn’t turn out quite right because she omitted an ingredient…a touch of grace. Intrigued, I reached for Cookwise, found the recipe and headed off to the grocery store at 5:00 am to buy heavy cream and buttermilk.

I preheated the oven to 475 degrees and started measuring the dry ingredients into my favorite stainless steel biscuit mixing bowl. After adding the wet ingredients I was spooning very wet dough onto a plate of flour, turning gently to coat, shaking off the excess flour best I could and placing the uncooked, drop biscuits side-by-side in a greased 8″ cake pan.

As I slide the cake pan into the oven and set the timer for 17 minutes I could feel the anticipation begin to build. I have baked hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of biscuits, and  I am the proud winner of a Blue Ribbon for my biscuits last summer at the Fair, and yet I could not wait for that timer to run its course. Hurry, hurry I thought to myself. I have butter and orange marmalade waiting patiently.

As my kitchen timer sung its gentle tune, I slowly opened the oven and you see what I saw.

A "Touch of Grace"

A cake pan full of the softest, most tender biscuits known to civilization. I’m not exaggerating when I say that had I not tethered them to the kitchen counter they would have floated away and joined other ethereal and gossamer things somewhere in space.

In your life you have never seen a pat of butter and a dollop of orange marmalade any happier. That first bite was truly amazing. No joke…these are truly light, soft, tender, melt in your mouth biscuits. And, there is no waste, which really appeals to me.

Biscuits are a food connection to our past. I cannot imagine for a moment a pilgrim throwing away any unshaped scraps. That may have been a sin for which no repentance was sufficient.

Before baking these biscuits I had a dozen working biscuit recipes, I now have 13.

Remember, when YOU make it, the first ingredient is love.

Buon Apetito!

So thick it supports a standing spoon.

For our Super Bowl Party this year my mother made her famous Minestrone soup. My brother and I were at her house for the big occasion when she said, “this soup is so thick a spoon with stand up in it.”

That’s when I said, “let’s test it out.” You see the results in the picture to the left. The proof is in the pudding, as the old saying goes. That is a silicone spatula standing straight as an arrow in the middle of that pot of soup.

Okay, it’s thick, but what about the taste?? I guess you haven’t tasted my mother’s cooking or you wouldn’t bother asking that question. This vegetarian soup is out of this world scrumptious.

It’s what every good winter soup should be…thick, hearty and loaded with good stuff. Many Italian soups are light, broth soups with few ingredients, this is an exception.

Ready to get started…

Soak 2 cups dried navy beans in 10 cups of water overnight. The next day bring to a boil, add 1 teaspoon salt and a few grindings of black pepper, cover and simmer for one hour. Saute one cup diced onion and celery until soft, about 5-6 minutes, add 2 cloves garlic minced and sauté an additional 2 minutes.

Add sauté mixture to beans along with 2 1/2 cups canned tomatoes, 2 cups shredded cabbage and 1/4 cup chopped parsley. Bring to a boil and simmer for one hour. Add one cup sliced zucchini and 1 cup elbow macaroni, cook for an additional 20 minutes or until pasta is done. If the soup seems too thick add an additional 1/2 cup of water or chicken stock. To serve, ladle generous portions into your biggest soup bowls, finish with grated Parmesan cheese and a quick drizzle of your fruitiest olive oil. If you like it spicy hot add a teaspoon of dried red pepper flakes with the tomatoes, cabbage and parsley.

Serve with your favorite garlic bread for a heart warming dinner that’s sure to please…I guarantee.

I tease my mother all the time by saying, “hey mom aren’t you glad I taught you how to cook?” In reality it was her who got me started in the kitchen and for that I am very grateful. Thanks mom.

Remember, when your mom makes it, the first ingredient is love.

Buon Apetito!

The souffle omelet is an omelet in which the eggs have been beaten until they triple in volume, It is then started on the stove top and finished in the oven where the eggs souffle up yielding an omelet with a huge WOW factor. This omelet is easy to make and the finished product is light, airy and quite delicious.

At Chef Jimmy’s Kitchen this is one of my favorite omelets, eggs and salsa are a natural combination.

I wasn't quick enough, someone couldn't wait and took a bite.

Ready? Okay, let’s get started…

Start by sautéing 3-4 tablespoons each of diced onion and red bell pepper in 1 tablespoon olive oil. Saute until soft, about 5-8 minutes. Add 1/4 teaspoon salt to 3 eggs in a mixing bowl, beat with an electric mixer until the eggs triple in volume.

Heat an eight inch oven safe skillet on the stove top on medium heat add 1 tablespoon of olive oil and butter, when the foam subsides add egg mixture. When edges just start to set add sautéed onion pepper mixture, 3-4 tablespoons of your favorite salsa and 1/4 cup shredded pepper jack cheese.

Place skillet on the middle rack of an oven preheated to 350 degrees. Bake for 4-6 minutes or until the middle is just set.

When the omelet is fully cooked remove from the oven, be careful the handle is hot, and start to slide the omelet onto a plate. When the omelet is half way out of the skillet use the pan to fold the last half of the omelet over the first half so that it looks like the picture above.

Finish the plate with fresh fruit and heart-shaped scones like above. The recipe for the dried fruit cream scones, a staple at my restaurant The White Bear Cafe, can be found in another February 2010 blog post.

This omelet can be served for breakfast, brunch or dinner. How about at midnight after you return from the theater?  Also you can serve 2-3 people by doubling the ingredients and using a 10″-12″ oven safe skillet

Remember, when YOU make it, the first ingredient is love.

Buon Apetito!

Start here.

At Chef Jimmy’s Kitchen we use caramelized onions for a multitude of recipes. For starters mix a heaping tablespoon of caramelized onion into 1 cup of your favorite mayo, cover and refrigerate overnight. Now, see if your best roast beef sandwich isn’t light years better.  That was just a little tease I’ll share a couple more ideas in a minute. Let’s get started… 

It doesn’t matter how many onions you start with, this process takes a while and they keep for a couple of weeks refrigerated so you may as well make plenty. Once you experience the  taste, you’ll find many uses.   Heat 3-4 tablespoons vegetable oil in your largest sauté pan on medium heat. While that’s coming up to temperature dice 3 medium to large yellow or white onions. When the pan is hot add onions and stir to distribute oil. 

Now the glorious process begins, the sugars in the onions start to caramelize and gradually turn color from white to quite dark, but not burnt.  

Stir very frequently and don’t stray far from the kitchen or you may end up with burnt onions. The process from start to finish will take 45 minutes, give or take.  

Somewhere in the middle of the cooking process.

As you proceed you will have to turn the heat lower and lower as the water content evaporates and the sugars become more concentrated the mixture could burn more easily. If you start with the temperature at medium or slightly higher, you will finish the last ten minutes at halfway between medium and low.  

The picture to the left shows the onions about halfway done and the picture below shows the finished product.  

Viola!! Hard to believe it started as the picture on top.

Now you can cool, place in an airtight container, and refrigerate for further use.  Here are a couple of my ideas, but use your imagination. Try replacing caramelized onion anywhere you were using raw onions. 

Add a few tablespoons to meatloaf, hamburgers or meatballs. As an appetizer defrost one full sheet of puff pastry according to the package directions, crimp the rectangle all around the edge, put a thin layer of cooled caramelized onion on top of the puff pastry, scatter a handful of shredded Swiss cheese on top of the onions and sprinkle a tablespoon of fresh minced thyme. Bake according to package directions for the puff pastry. You now have a Caramelized Onion and Swiss cheese gourmet pizza.Cut into squares and serve warm right from the oven.  

Remember…when YOU make it, the first ingredient is love.  

Buon Apetito.

dges

Nene reaching for an Ultimate Buttermilk Biscuit.

Sometimes when people ask me how to make something in the kitchen, say pie crust for example, my standard response is, “make it everyday for 30 days, then you’ll have it down”. Well I followed my own advice, in spades. I don’t know exactly when, but after I won Blue Ribbon at the largest County Fair in Minnesota this summer for Biscuits I started reworking my biscuit recipe until…Viola!

I now believe these Buttermilk Biscuits to be the best I’ve ever made. There are 3 things these biscuits have going for them. First, it is easy to have the ingredients around. So when you wake up on Sunday morning and “feel the need for biscuits”, you’re likely to have all the ingredients on hand. Second, the dough is very easy to work with, it is easy to shape and easy to transfer to a sheet pan. Third, these biscuits are uber-tasty, tender and soft on the inside and a hint of crispness on the edges.

The Ultimate Buttermilk Biscuit.

Let’s get started…

2 cups all purpose flour

1 tablespoon baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

4 ounces cold cream cheese

1/2 cup (1 stick) frozen butter

2/3 cup ice water

And, are you ready for the surprise ingredient? 2 1/2 tablespoons of powdered buttermilk. I don’t know about you but I do not always have buttermilk on hand, and it has a short shelf life, powdered buttermilk, on the other hand has a shelf of months, maybe years.

In a cold stainless steel mixing bowl add all the dry ingredients, whisk together until well blended. Add the cream cheese cut into 5-6 pieces and coat with flour, working quickly with your fingers cut the cream cheese into small pieces, it is not that important

Cream cheese cut in and grated butter evenly distributed.

how small or uniform the pieces are. No pieces should be larger than a big blueberry. Now, with a box grater grate the frozen stick of better into the flour, cream cheese mixture. When finished, coat the butter with flour and distribute evenly. Add the ice water and with a fork stir until all the flour is combined. Turn out onto a lightly floured board and knead 3-4 times to bring the mixture together. Pat into a 1/2″ flat disk. Cut into whatever shape suits your fancy, round being traditional. Re-roll dough once to get 2-3 more biscuits. Bake at 425 until tops are browned, about 12-14 minutes.

Serve warm right out of the oven.

Brush tops with butter and serve warm with orange marmalade, honey or your favorite jam. I’m really into orange marmalade these days. Last month I was really into homemade strawberry jam.

Remember…when YOU make it, the first ingredient is love.

If you’re like me then you hold Eggs Benedict as one of the truly fabulous food triumphs in culinary history. Perfectly poached eggs perched atop a toasted English muffin adorned by one of the single most sublime and utterly fantastic silky smooth sauces the French ever created, and they’ve created quite a few. Hollandaise sauce…an emulsion of egg and butter, scented with lemon and a very light hand of cayenne.

This is not an easy dish to get right when ordered out, often the white of the egg is not set or the yolk too set. However, with a few simple tips you can make it to perfection right in your own kitchen, the object of your brunch will be most impressed. We are going to take some liberties with the original recipe…Socrates will be proud of us when he learns of our Eggs Sophia.

Are you ready to begin…?

Eggs Sophia–Fill a sauté pan with 2″ of water, add 1/4 cup apple cider vinegar, place on high heat until boiling. Reduce heat so the water barley simmers.

To make Foolproof  Hollandaise set up a double boiler by placing a stainless steel bowl over a sauce pan filled with an inch of water, set on medium heat. To yield 2 cups Hollandaise, melt and cool 12 tablespoons butter, in double boiler bowl add butter, 6 egg yolks and whisk to mix well, slowly whisk in 1/2 cup boiling water. Whisk constantly until thickened, sauce should register 160 degrees, about 7-10 minutes. Off heat stir in 1/2 teaspoon salt, 4 teaspoons lemon juice (double the normal amount, lemon is very prominent in Greek cookery) and 1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper. For two servings add four eggs to the barely simmering water. Set a timer for 6 minutes, after 1 minute gently slide a spatula under the eggs to ensure they do not stick to the pan, remove when done and drain well.

Fork split and toast 2 English muffins, when done place well-drained eggs on top and ladle Hollandaise over eggs. To complete our Greek interpretation of this classic sprinkle crumbled feta cheese over the Hollandaise and shake a few dried leaves of oregano.

Greek Eggs Benedict, American Fries and Fresh Fruit.

American Fried Potatoes–The night before rub two large baking potatoes with olive oil, place on a sheet pan and generously salt and pepper. Bake at 350 degrees until done, about an hour. Cool and then refrigerate over night. The next morning, cut the potatoes into 1/2″ pieces. Heat 2 tablespoons olive oil and two tablespoons butter in a sauté pan. When hot, add potatoes, season to taste and fried until desired crispness is achieved. If you like spicy potatoes add a few shakes of hot sauce into the butter/oil mixture before adding potatoes.

Fresh Fruit–I myself enjoy sliced cantaloupe with this dish, but fresh fruit of your choosing will work equally well, mango would be quite nice.

The Ultimate Screwdriver–Put an 11 ounce can of Mandarin orange sections, with the same amount of orange juice in a food processor, process for 30 seconds. Fill a highball glass with ice, add 1 1/2 ounce of your favorite vodka, pour orange juice mixture to within 1″ of top and float 1/2 ounce orange liquor on top. You’ll fall in love all over again with the screwdriver. Garnish with strawberries and an orange slice.

Oregano is a popular herb in Greek cooking, if you like add 1 teaspoon dried to the American Fried Potatoes. Serving Eggs Benedict takes a little coordination and timing, allow yourself plenty of time. The potatoes can be fried and kept warm for quite some time while preparing the eggs and Hollandaise, the fruit can be cut ahead of time as well. I suggest you take the Sunday paper and the Ultimate Screwdriver to your Valentine, while still in bed.

Remember…when You make it, the first ingredient is love.

Buon Apetito.

Homemade beef barley soup, elixir for the soul.

Homemade soup is one of the easiest and tastiest foods you can make. It is hearty and heart warming, a terrific way to use up leftovers and the odds and ends in the vegetable crisper. Frugal chic never tasted so good.

Whenever I make pot roast with oven browned potatoes and carrots I use the leftovers to make beef barley soup. If you don’t have leftover pot roast you can either use a couple of soup bones or use beef base from the grocery store.

This is very simple to make, pour the leftovers into a stock pot large enough to hold the contents comfortably, add water to make 2 quarts. If you’re using beef base add the base according to the package directions, usually it is 1 teaspoon base to 8 ounces of water.

Diced carrots, onion and celery.

Add 1 cup of the following carrots, celery, onion, cabbage and 1/2 cup barley. Bring to a boil and simmer lazily for an hour of so. Taste and add more beef base, salt and pepper to taste. If you like a spicy soup add 1 teaspoon dried red pepper flakes during the simmering.

This is the vegetable mixture I usually use, but you can also use turnips, rutabagas or parsnips. Also, if you don’t like onion or cabbage they are easily omitted. Pasta or Kasha can be substituted for barley. Just using these few ingredients we have dozens of possible combination’s. The point is this, you don’t have to be a slave to a recipe. Remember, only the beef stock is necessary for beef soup, EVERY other ingredient is optional.

Have some fun, enjoy and as always, “when YOU make it, the first ingredient is love.

Buon Apetito.

Ahh...Curry Chicken Salad and cooling Fresh Fruit.

Welcome to Five Easy Valentine’s Day Brunch menus, this is Part 4, Curry Chicken Salad. When I owned DELISH Deli & Catering this recipe was a closely guarded secret, and comprised half of a classic DELISH lunch, the other half was our Butterfinger Brownies. This covered two of the five food groups, curry and chocolate. Nowadays I’m pleased to share the recipe with everyone.

I made this up somewhere along the line that the closer it is to lunch time on a Sunday morning the more likely you are to have something cold for brunch. So, if you’re a late riser this may be the perfect menu for you. If you make the Curry Chicken Salad and cut up the fruit the night before, Sunday morning will be quite leisurely and your toughest job will be toasting a couple of croissants and mixing a couple of Ultimate Screwdrivers.

Let’s get started…

Curry Chicken Salad–To serve four people bake four boneless, skinless chicken breasts in a 350 degree oven until just done, let cool to room temperature. Cut the chicken into bite size cubes and put in a mixing bowl, add 1 cup mayonnaise, 1/2 cup mango

Dice cooled chicken into 1/2' cubes.

chutney (do not omit this ingredient), 1/4 cup curry powder, 1/2 cup of the following: golden raisins, toasted walnuts or pecans broken into pieces, celery and onion. Mix well and add salt and a few grindings of freshly cracked black pepper to taste. Cover and refrigerate overnight.

Fresh Fruit–Strawberries and mangos are nice with curry, the juiciness of the fruit cuts the intense flavor of the curry. Melon and almost any other berries will work too. Also, tomatoes are quite nice with this dish. At DELISH we catered this dish with sliced fruit and tomatoes.

Croissants–Split and toast one croissant per person and top with orange marmalade or your favorite jam. Any quick bread, especially Date Nut, Banana or Orange Cranberry would also be a delicious accompaniment to curry.

The Ultimate Screwdriver–Put an 11 ounce can of Mandarin orange sections, with the same amount of orange juice in a food processor, process for 30 seconds. Fill a highball glass with ice, add 1 1/2 ounce of your favorite vodka, pour orange juice mixture to within 1″ of top and float 1/2 ounce orange liquor on top. You’ll fall in love all over again with the screwdriver. Garnish with strawberries and an orange slice.

Hey Guys, make her a screwdriver and deliver it to her in bed along with the Sunday paper, let her relax while you finish plating the curry chicken, fruit and croissant. The two of you can enjoy breakfast in bed. It’s time to call in that favor to have your sister watch the kids for a few hours.

Buon Apettito.

This wonderful Valentine’s Day brunch menu is easy and delicious. Some of it is done the night before which makes for a relaxed Sunday morning brunch. This is the third menu in a series of five Valentine’s Day brunch ideas.

Freshly grated nutmeg, cinnamon and just a hint of clove.

The recipes are geared to everyone, but it’s a reminder to you Guys out there that the way to her heart is to show her that you’ve been thinking about her and that you’ve planned something just for her.

The origin of French Toast is sketchy, it likely isn’t French at all. My guess is that someone had an ah-ha moment a few hundred or a few thousand years age when they couldn’t tolerate, or afford, the thought of throwing away stale bread. Reconstituted in an egg and milk mixture this close to the garbage heap bread becomes an elegant and versatile brunch.

Whole wheat bread drinking up the golden spiced egg bath.

French Toast’s cousins include bread pudding on the sweet side and egg strata and all the sausage, cheese ,  egg and bread concoctions on the savory side.

Caramel Pecan French Toast is a mostly do-ahead brunch that is almost beyond description, it is that good.

Ready to get started?…

Caramel Pecan French Toast–The night before, lay out four slices of bread on a sheet pan. In a mixing bowl lightly beat 3 eggs, add 1 1/4 cup half and half, 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon, a pinch of ground clove and a healthy grating of nutmeg. Pour the mixture over the bread, cover and refrigerate overnight (it will seem like too much egg mixture, not to worry).In another mixing bowl combine 2/3 stick softened butter, 3/4 cup brown sugar, 2 tablespoons dark corn syrup and 1/2 cup pecans broken into pieces. Spread the butter/brown sugar mixture evenly on the four slices of bread, put in a 370 degree oven for about 55 minutes. When done the edges will be lightly browned and the butter mixture will be bubbly.

Applewood Smoked Bacon–While the French toast is baking, cook bacon on the stove top over medium heat to your preferred crispness. Drain on a couple of paper towels folded over. I personally love Applewood smoked bacon, but really any bacon will do.

I love this breakfast, sweet and salty all at once.

Fresh Fruit–This is really to your taste, I’ve shown honeydew melon (the money melon). sliced strawberries, blueberries and raspberries. Bananas would make a welcome addition, mango would be colorful. It’s a canvas, paint it your way. This can be cut up while the French Toast is baking.

The Ultimate Scewdriver–In a fluted Champagne glass, fill with ice (store bought is better, its clear) add 1 1/2 ounce orange vodka, fill to within 1″ of top with orange juice and float 1/2 ounce orange liquor on top. Garnish with a strawberry and orange slice. Bring her this drink and the Sunday paper so she can lounge around while you work your kitchen magic.

Arrange on plates as shown or use your imagination. Drizzle your favorite syrup over the French Toast and viola, it’s soup! The important thing is that you’re in the kitchen, making something with your own two hands for the person or family you love. I always say, “when YOU make it, the first ingredient is love”.

Buon Apetito.